JCP&L trimming trees along line corridors

As part of its ongoing efforts to enhance service reliability, Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) is trimming trees in transmission line corridors in Essex, Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth, Morris and Ocean counties.

The work is done to ensure JCP&L’s transmission system – which includes lines carrying from 69,000 to 500,000 volts of electricity – meets or exceeds federal and state requirements for maintaining proper tree clearances in order to provide safe and reliable service to customers.

JCP&L, through its contractors, employs a variety of techniques to remove trees and limbs that have the potential to cause outages, including the use of an aerial saw deployed by a helicopter in areas that are difficult to access using traditional equipment.
All JCP&L transmission line corridors are inspected a minimum of once a year. The corridors are maintained every four years or more frequently, if necessary. In addition, trees located beyond the edge of the rights-of-way that may potentially interfere are also evaluated regularly to determine if maintenance or removal is required.

This transmission work is in addition to JCP&L’s plans to trim trees along 3,400 miles of distribution lines running through neighborhoods in its northern and central New Jersey service areas.

Tree trimming on the transmission corridors and along distribution circuits are part of JCP&L’s $251 million investment in 2014 to expand and strengthen its infrastructure to enhance service reliability.